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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



WILLIAM REYNOLDS, 



REAR-ADMIRAL U.S.N. 



JOHN FULTON REYNOLDS, 

MAJOR-GENERAL U. S. V., COLONEL FIFTH U.S. INFANTRY. 



PAR NOBILE FRATRUM. 



A MEMOIE 



S BY 

J. G. ROSENGARTEN. 



[REPRINTED, WITH ADDITIONS, FROM THE UNITED SERVICE, MAY, 1880.] 



PRESS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., PHILADELPHIA, 

1880. 



*tr 



E461 
< J 



A MEMOIR 



OF 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 



Tar nobile fratrtim. 

[The following memoir, in a form somewhat different from that in which it is now 
presented, was read on the 8th of March, 1880, at the hall of the Historical Society 
of Pennsylvania, on the occasion of the presentation of a portrait of General 
Eeynolds, painted hy Balling, a Danish artist, and bequeathed to the Society by 
the late Admiral Eeynolds. Eepresenting the widow and her co-executor, I was of 
course debarred from even the customary license of eulogy. In the letters and 
addresses from which I have made liberal extracts, there will be found eloquent 
praise of these two eminent brothers, who lent lustre to the respective arms of the 
service in which they spent their lives. It is especially grateful and fitting to 
accede to the request of the editors for a memoir of Admiral Eeynolds and of 
General Eeynolds, for The United Service addresses itself to both army and 
navy, and no better representatives of the two services can be found than these two 
brothers.— J. G. E.] 

There are both in this country and elsewhere notable examples of two 
brothers achieving distinction in the sister services, but these cases are 
not so frequent as to allow the latest as well as the most shining instance 
to pass without special comment. There was much in common in the 
character of Admiral and General Reynolds. They were alike in their 
dislike of mere popular applause ; alike in their zealous discharge of 
duty ; alike in always putting their whole strength in all they did ; 
alike in the high estimate put upon them by all who knew them ; alike 
in enjoying the affection and confidence of all who served with them ; 
alike in the hold they have gained upon the memory of those who 
could best appreciate their abilities and their patriotic devotion to their 
country in its hour of direst need, — in the great struggle for its exist- 
ence. General Reynolds gave up his life on the battle-field in the 
midst of health and strength, Admiral Reynolds died in consequence 
of exposure to the malarial fever of the East when he was in com- 
mand of the Asiatic Squadron. He had broken down forty years 
before under the hardships incident to his service as a subaltern in 
Wilkes's Exploring Expedition, was forced by ill health to go upon the 
retired list, and was employed for some years in the Sandwich Islands. 



4 A MEMOIR OF 

He returned home at once on the outbreak of the Rebellion, and, although 
still disabled, sought and at once found active employment, and was 
soon restored to the active list as a reward for his successful discharge 
of the important and responsible duties assigned to him. Nor were 
these brothers alone in serving their country in its hour of peril. An 
elder brother was a paymaster, and a younger was the quartermaster- 
general of Pennsylvania throughout the war, and served with great 
zeal, rendering efficient and valuable aid to his commander, the 
war governor of that great Commonwealth, helping to call forth its 
strength and contribute its resources of men and means to meet the 
exigencies of those trying times, and to support the strain put upon 
its patriotism. 

William and John Fulton Reynolds were the sons of John Rey- 
nolds, who was born near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1787. He 
was the son of William Reynolds, a Protestant Irishman, who came 
to this country in 1760, and married Catharine Ferree Le Fevre, the 
great-granddaughter of Mary Ferree, a French Huguenot, who settled 
in Lancaster County in 1709. This Mary Ferree came from the Rhine 
Provinces, where she had taken refuge from persecution in France, until 
a French invading army forced her to go still farther. Finally, with 
her three sons and three daughters and a large following of her fellow- 
countrymen, she found a home in Pennsylvania. She was a widow 
before she left Europe, yet so much of a leader that on her arrival 
she took up four thousand acres, — two thousand by grant from the 
Proprietor, who thus encouraged the settlement of an excellent class 
of emigrants, and two thousand by purchase. All of this and much 
adjacent land was subdivided among and settled by French and other 
Protestant refugees. They were all heartily welcomed by the Indians, 
whose king, Tanawa, lies buried in the grave-yard at Paradise, in 
Lancaster County, set apart by her. Her daughter, Catharine, mar- 
ried Isaac Le Fevre, who had come to this country in 1686, in his 
seventeenth year, first settling with many other French Huguenots 
in Esopus in New York, subsequently joining his fellow-Huguenots 
in Pennsylvania. Their son was the first white child born in Pequea 
Valley, now one of the richest, most populous, and most fertile tracts 
of Eastern Pennsylvania. Penn, in a deed dated 1712, for land con- 
veyed to Daniel Ferree and Isaac Le Fevre, described them as " late 
of Steinmeister, in the Palatinate of the Rhine," and the passport from 
the authorities of their native place speaks of them as coming " to 
the Island of Pennsylvania." Rupp, in his "History of Lancaster 
County," calls them Walloons. Redmond Conyngham reports a tra- 
dition that Mary Ferree was presented to Queen Anne at Hampton 
Court by Penn himself when she was on her way to his colony, and 
she was certainly treated with unusual honor as a representative and 
leader of the French Huguenots in their exodus to a new home. 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 5 

The mother of Admiral and General Reynolds was Lydia, daugh- 
ter of Samuel Moore, a Protestant Irishman too, an early settler in 
Lancaster County, and an officer of the Pennsylvania line during the 
Revolutionary War ; although on the reorganization of the Continental 
army he lost his commission, his services were rewarded by a grant 
of land in the West and by a pension to his widow. Her maternal 
grandfather, Samuel Fulton, another north of Ireland emigrant, gave 
to John Fulton Reynolds his middle name. The Reynolds' well bear 
out the strong praise given to their race by Judge Chambers in his 
account of " The Irish and Scotch Settlers of Pennsylvania," where, 
after premising that " character is said to be transmissible, and that of 
descendants may often be traced in that of their ancestors," he asserts 
that " in all stations under the National and State governments, civil 
and military, the men of the Scotch-Irish race have generally been 
prominent, eminent, patriotic, faithful, wise, judicious and deliberate 
in council, resolute, unwavering, and inflexible in the discharge of 
duty, and when called by their country to face the public enemy in 
arms, there were none more brave, fearless, and intrepid." John 
Reynolds, the father, was left an orphan at an early age, and coming 
from Lancaster to Philadelphia, became an apprentice to Archibald 
Bartram, a well-known printer in the early years of the century; he 
was made a partner before he was of age, and the imprint of Bartram & 
Reynolds is found on some important publications. Reynolds returned,, 
to Lancaster, and in 1820 bought the Lancaster Journal, established 
in 1794, which grew in importance under his management. He sold 
it in 1836, and thenceforward devoted himself to the care of numerous 
important public and private trusts. He sat in the State Legislature 
for a short time, and he was honored with the esteem and confidence 
of all his associates there, while he was active and energetic at home 
in advancing the interests of his fellow-townsmen, and especially in 
the cause of education, taking a large part in securing the establish- 
ment of the system of common schools, and in every way maintaining 
the credit and distinction which made Lancaster pre-eminent in the 
State, and that at a time when its influence was quite out of proportion 
to its mere size. John Reynolds died in Baltimore on the 11th of May, 
1853, leaving to his children the inheritance of a spotless reputation. 
William Reynolds, his 'second son, was born in Lancaster, December 
18, 1815; was appointed a midshipman November 17, 1831; served 
on Wilkes's Exploring Expedition from 1838 to 1842, receiving his 
commission as lieutenant while he was with it, and went on the retired 
list in consequence of ill health in 1*851. He was assigned to duty 
at the Sandwich Islands, and remained there until 1861, when he 
returned to the United States and applied for active duty. He was 
made commander of the naval forces at Port Royal, and on the recom- 
mendation of Admiral Dupont and Admiral Dahlgren, and at the 



6 A MEMOIR OF 

urgent request of his juniors, was restored to the active list; became 
a commodore in 1870 ; served as Chief of Bureau and as Acting Sec- 
retary of the Navy in 1873, and again in 1874; and having been 
made rear-admiral December 12, 1873, was appointed in that year 
to the command of the United States naval force on the Asiatic Station, 
where he was again stricken down and obliged to return home. 

It was while he was in Japanese waters that he made his will, 
bequeathing the sword intended to be presented to his brother, General 
Reynolds, by the enlisted men of the Pennsylvania Reserves, and after 
his death sent to the Admiral, as the representative of the family, to 
their nephew, Lieutenant John Fulton Reynolds Landis, now of the 
First United States Cavalry, and Balling's portrait of General Rey- 
nolds to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, thus showing that his 
last thought was of that brother's memory, and that his last wish was 
to perpetuate the name and fame of the gallant soldier whose death on 
the battle-field has forever connected him with the successful issue of 
the great struggle at Gettysburg. 

Of Admiral Reynolds's services the Secretary of the Navy, in 
the order announcing his death, says, "In the administration of the 
duties committed to him he did much to improve the personnel and 
efficiency of the enlisted men of the navy, and in the discharge of all 
the duties devolving on him during a long career in the service 
he exhibited zeal, intelligence, and ability, for all of which he was 
conspicuous." 

Judge Allen, the Hawaiian representative at Washington, said, 
" Admiral Reynolds, when a young man attached to Wilkes's Exploring 
Expedition, made a thorough examination of the Hawaiian Islands. 
Returning there on account of ill health, he became strongly impressed 
with the importance of their position, not only as a resort for the mer- 
cantile and naval marine, but as an outpost of defense to the United 
States. He urged the establishment of more intimate commercial 
relations between the two countries, not only on the score of increased 
business, but as tending to strengthen the political position of the 
United States in its control of the great western world. His judg- 
ment was strikingly correct, not only in all that related to his profes- 
sional duty, but in regard to promoting the commercial and industrial 
interests of the whole country. He seconded heartily the action of 
the government in negotiating the Hawaiian treaty of reciprocity, 
viewing it as of great political as well as commercial value, and urging 
on all the public men who consulted him on account of his long resi- 
dence in the islands, the necessity of favorable action. His opinion 
was clear and emphatic that the treaty would give the United States 
a controlling interest in the islands, and it had great and deserved 
weight with those who, knowing his thorough acquaintance with the 
subject, could rely implicitly on his sound advice and his mature 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 7 

judgment. The Hawaiians have always borne in grateful memory his 
long residence in their midst, and his action in forwarding the treaty 
which has secured them a strong alliance with the United States, and 
saved them from the risks of an unwelcome protectorate from some 
distant power. It was eminently characteristic of Admiral Reynolds 
that in his successive visits to the islands and in his frequent inter- 
course with their representatives, he never failed to do and to secure 
justice to them, and to maintain the high and well-earned confidence 
which has always been put in our naval representatives by those 
countries with which they have had most to do." 

Rear- Admiral Rodgers said, "I know that Admiral Dupont 
placed the greatest confidence in Reynolds, — his administration of his 
command was always admirable, he was always ready for duty, and no 
one was ever detained for a moment for anything which it laid in his 
power to do at once. The letters on file in the Navy Department 
show how valuable, how indispensable were the services he rendered 
to the fleet at Port Royal. At the Sandwich Islands, as elsewhere, he 
was conspicuous for his attention to his duties and for his skill in per- 
forming them. To a ready command of language he united clear 
perceptions, a facile pen, and elegant diction, — he wrote well and with 
great strength. In losing Admiral Reynolds the navy lost one of its 
most devoted servants and one of its most esteemed officers." 

His last service was in command of the United States naval forces on 
the Asiatic Station. Sailing from New York in his flag-ship " Tennes- 
see," he went through the Suez Canal, receiving unusual honors from 
the Khedive of Egypt and from the British officers in India. In China 
and Japan, in Siam and Singapore, he discharged with great success 
the large discretion necessarily vested in our naval commanders in the 
East. Lieutenant-Commander White, who was a member of Admiral 
Reynolds's staff, in his rough notes of his last cruise, speaks of the 
thoroughness with which he carried out all his orders and visited all 
the points prescribed, notably working to secure the success of his 
negotiation with the King of Siam and to re-establish friendly relations 
with his kingdom, and in all his dealings and intercourse making a 
strong and favorable impression on all with whom he was personally 
and officially brought in contact. In Japan, his relations with native 
as well as foreign dignitaries were always of the pleasantest kind. In 
China, he took his flag-ship close to the great China Wall, where it 
comes down to the sea, and afterwards visited Pekin, and was received 
by the regent with the distinction due his rank and the country he so 
well represented. His health failing, he relinquished his command 
and returned home. This was his last duty; he soon after went on 
the retired list, and after a long illness he died in Washington, on 
the 5th of November, 1879, and was buried in Lancaster, Pa., near 
his brother, General John F. Reynolds. 



8 A MEMOIR OF 

John Fulton Reynolds was born in Lancaster on the 20th of Sep- 
tember, 1820. Like his elder brother William, and with his younger 
brother James Le Fevre, he was sent to school at Litiz, a Moravian 
village laid out as a colony from Bethlehem in 1757, and deriving 
its name from a village in Bohemia, whence many of the United 
Brethren had emigrated to this country. It has always been famous 
for its schools. Originally there was one for boys belonging to the 
society and another for those of other denominations, but finally these 
were consolidated, and in 1815 put under charge of Mr. John Beck, 
who remained at its head for fifty years. In his valedictory address of 
1865 he gives a catalogue of his pupils, and it contains the names of 
William Reynolds in 1827, and John and James Reynolds in 1833. 
Beck was noted for his social intercourse and parental influence with 
his boys ; he inspired them with a real love of work and a hearty en- 
thusiasm in all their pursuits ; he had the gift of teaching them how 
to learn, and in giving them a good practical education he made his 
school deservedly popular and successful, so that it left its marked and 
lasting influence on all those whose early education was begun under 
his fostering care. 

One of Reynolds's school-fellows says of him, "He was a general 
favorite ; of a kindly but very lively temperament, he attracted sym- 
pathy and love with all, and was held in high esteem, — his happy and 
joyous face showed that he belonged to a race of hardy scholars, work- 
ing and playing in earnest." To give them a classical training the 
Reynolds boys were sent from Litiz to Long Green, Maryland, about 
sixteen miles from Baltimore, where the Rev. Mr. Morrison, a Pres- 
byterian clergyman, had established a very successful high school in an 
old colonial mansion of the Carrolls. Afterwards they returned to 
Lancaster, where they studied French and mathematics, and received 
their appointments, William going into the navy as a midshipman, 
John to West Point as a cadet. They received these from Mr. Bu- 
chanan, at that time a leading representative of Pennsylvania in Con- 
gress, and one of that strong body of able men who made the local 
reputation of Lancaster and carried it into the highest place in our 
government. With him as with his other contemporaries the elder 
Reynolds maintained a life-long intimacy, — the tie of Federalism bound 
them together for many years, and their friendship outlived their party, 
for they went together over to the new Jackson ian Democracy. 

Reynolds was appointed a cadet at West Point on the 30th of June, 
1837, being then nearly seventeen ; he graduated on the 22d of June, 
1841, number twenty-six in a class of fifty-two. Among his class- 
mates were General Wright, now Chief of Engineers U.S.A., Lyons, 
Garesche, Tower, Whipple, Rodman, Howe, Totten, Garnett, all well 
known for their share in the late war, and in which like him they won 
honor and distinction. 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 9 

He was appointed brevet lieutenant July 1, 1841, and second 
lieutenant in the Third Artillery October 23, 1841 ; first lieutenant 
June 1, 1846 ; was in the battery under T. W. Sherman in the battle 
of Monterey, and was for his services there brevetted captain September 
23, 1846 ; was engaged in the battle of Buena Vista, on the 21st of 
January, 1847, and was brevetted major for his gallantry on that field. 
He was appointed captain March 5, 1855; was mentioned in general 
orders for his services in the expedition against the Eogue Eiver 
Indians in Oregon ; took part in the Utah Expedition, under General 
A. S. Johnston, in 1858 ; and in 1859 was appointed commandant of 
cadets at West Point. May 14, 1861, he was appointed lieutenant- 
colonel of the Fourteenth Infantry, and on the 20th of August, 1861, 
brigadier-general U.S.V. At the request of Governor Curtin he was 
assigned the command of the First Brigade of the division of Penn- 
sylvania Reserves, then under Major-General McCall, in front of Wash- 
ington, Meade and Ord taking the other brigades. In May, 1862, he 
was made military governor of Fredericksburg, and it is characteristic 
of the man that when he was taken prisoner at the battle of Gaines' 
Mills, on the 28th of June, and sent to Richmond, the civil author- 
ities of Fredericksburg went to Richmond to solicit his exchange. 
This was finally effected, and he was exchanged for General Barks- 
dale, who was also killed at Gettysburg. Reynolds employed his 
enforced leisure in prison by preparing a careful report of the opera- 
tions of his command in the campaign under McClellan, and on his 
release rejoined the army on the 8th of August, and was assigned com- 
mand of the division of Pennsylvania Reserves, taking a distinguished 
part in the campaign of the Army of Virginia under General Pope ; 
at the request of Governor Curtin he was assigned command of the 
militia at the time of the first invasion of Pennsylvania ; returning to 
the Army of the Potomac, he succeeded General Hooker in command 
of the First Corps; on the 29th of March, 1863, he was appointed 
major-general U.S.V. ; and on the 1st of June, colonel Fifth United 
States Infantry; on the 12th of June he was assigned to the command 
of the left wing of the Army of the Potomac, consisting of his own 
and the Third and Eleventh Corps, and of the cavalry division under 
Buford; and on the 1st of July, 1863, he fell at Gettysburg at the head 
of his troops, in the advance of the army, and at the very outset of 
the great battle. 

The letters written by him during his busy career well illustrate 
his character. He writes from camp near Monterey, 6th of December, 
1846, " In the first place, our battery was ordered into town on the 
21st, with four guns, four caissons, and six horses to a carriage. It 
was discovered that only one gun could be brought into action, the 
remainder was therefore exposed to the fire from the enemy's works 
without being of the least use. It was therefore ordered back where 



10 A MEMOIR OF 

it started from, and which it never should have left at the time it did ; 
afterwards the men were of some use in driving back the cavalry of 
the enemy. On the 23d we were again in town, and suffered more in 
the loss of men than we did on the 21st; in all we had twenty -two 
horses and about twelve or fourteen men disabled. My horse was shot 
on the 21st, but has entirely recovered, and is in much better condition 
than ever, inasmuch as he can go over his four bars and think nothing 
of it. There are but three of us now in the company, Thomas, 
myself, and French, Bragg having succeeded to the company poor 
Ridgeley commanded. What an unfortunate fate was his ! A more 
gallant officer there was never in the service, or a more noble, generous 
companion ; his death will be regretted by the whole army. He was 
looked upon as the real hero of the Resaca." 

From camp near Monterey, May 16, 1847, he writes, "All I care 
for and all the reward I expect is the good opinion of my brother 
officers in the army. I have been gratified to my heart's content with 
all the honors of war, but I am in for the war and expect to see it 
through." Carleton, in his "History of the Battle of Buena Vista," 
makes frequent mention of Reynolds, who was in command of a sec- 
tion of T. W. Sherman's battery, and was with his two guns in May's 
cavalry operations, doing gallant service in repelling the attack of the 
Mexicans on Buena "Vista, and aiding in turning the enemy's right at 
very close quarters. 

In General Orders No. 14, of November 13, 1857, and No. 22, of 
November 10, 1858, from headquarters of the army, Brevet Major 
J. F. Reynolds, Company H, Third Artillery, is one of the officers 
" specially commended for skill, perseverance, and judgment in their 
conduct of the campaign of March, April, May, and June, 1856, in 
which, after traversing the mountains and valleys of the Rogue River, 
the troops had a number of severe conflicts, and compelled the Indians 
to surrender at discretion, thus terminating the war in Southern 
Oregon." 

In September, 1859, he writes from camp at Fort Dalles, Oregon, 
describing the march of eight hundred and thirty-eight miles from 
Camp Floyd, Utah, having spent seventy-one days on the journey. 
He says, " And now we are at the end of the land route, about to ship 
the battery by water to Vancouver, ninety miles down the river. The 
march was tedious but very successful, and we are glad to get away from 
the despicable Mormons, whose hordes have seized the heart of the 
country and live in open defiance of the law." On the 18th of June, 
1861, writing from West Point, he speaks of " the sorrowful condition 
of our only lately happy and prosperous country," and of the visit 
of Mr. Jefferson Davis, in the preceding September, with a committee 
of Congressmen "laboring to reorganize our national school, whose 
sons never, until the seeds sown by his parricidal hand had filled it 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 11 

with the poisonous weed of secession, had known any other allegiance 
than that due to the whole country, or worshiped any other flag than 
that which waved over our youthful hopes and aspirations, and under 
which we marched so proudly in our boyish days. Who could have 
believed that he was then brooding over his systematic plan for dis- 
organizing the whole country? The depth of his treachery has not 
been plumbed yet, but it will be." In a letter from Fort Trumbull, on 
the 15th of July, 1861, he says, "I left West Point on the 3d, and 
have been busy since dispatching officers of my new regiment on re- 
cruiting service. I would have preferred, of course, the artillery arm 
of the service, but could not refuse at this time, when the government 
has a right to my services in any capacity. We have just received the 
news of General McClellan's victories, and hope they are the harbingers 
of the ultimate triumph and vindication of the Constitution of our 
fathers." After he had gone to the field, on the 4th of November, 
1861, he writes, "I put the division through a review, the form of 
which I arranged according to my idea of the proper formation and 
disposition of large bodies of troops ; it was a decided success. We 
are to have a review of three divisions soon, and in the same manner, 
putting about thirty thousand men in, and allowing them to manoeuvre 
and pass in review in proper order." 

He did his best to make the Pennsylvania militia as useful as pos- 
sible in the emergency for which he was called to command them in 
the autumn of 1862, and his labors were fully appreciated by those 
most competent to judge, although he was also the subject of much 
adverse comment by persons unwilling or unable even then to ap- 
preciate the advantage and necessity of strict military discipline. On 
the conclusion of this service Governor Curtin wrote him the follow- 
ing letter of thanks : 

Pennsylvania Executive Chamber, 
Harrisbttrg, 26th September, 1862. 
General, — Having relieved you from duty as commander of the Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteer Militia, recently called out for the defense of the State, I deem 
it proper to express my strong sense of the gratitude which Pennsylvania owes for 
the zeal, spirit, and ability which you brought to her service at a period when her 
honor and safety were threatened. That for her security you left the command 
of your brave division, the Pennsylvania Keserves, thus losing the opportunity 
of leading this gallant corps at South Mountain and Antietam, is a just demon- 
stration of the true affection you bear for your native State, which, be assured, 
her freemen reciprocate, and for which, in their behalf, I am happy to make you 
this acknowledgment. 

(Signed) A. G. Curtin. 

To Brigadier-General John P. Eeynolds, U.S.A. 

In his letter from camp near Sharpsburg, Maryland, October 5, 
1862, Reynolds says, " I finished up the militia just as soon as possible 
as far as I was concerned, though I was sorry to see they did not 



12 A MEMOIR OF 

escape without an accident, which I was apprehensive all the time 
might occur. They were impatient beyond any conception, and 
finally exhausted my patience in one or two instances. The President 
visited us on Friday last. My corps, for I am commanding Hooker's 
temporarily, were kept under arms waiting in the sun for so long a 
time as to have entirely melted out what little remained of their en- 
thusiasm." And on the 14th of October, speaking of Stuart's raid, he 
says, " When I heard that the enemy's cavalry had got over into the 
State I rejoiced, because I thought they must be caught before they 
recrossed the river, but their escape has given me quite a shock. I 
did not think they could perform such a feat in our own country. 
On the Chickahominy it was different, — the very audacity of the thing 
was the secret of its success. The State should have an organized force 
on the frontier, of cavalry, infantry, and artillery, to be posted on 
their exposed points, which could be moved with something like rapid- 
ity in a body. Militia without artillery would be good only to be 
paroled." 

In his letter of November 30, 1862, from headquarters First 
Army Corps, camp at Brooks 7 Station, Virginia, he says, "The removal 
of General McClellan was a surprise to the greater portion of the 
army here, but, take it altogether, it created less feeling than I feared 
such a step would have done. I saw more of him on this march than 
I have done since he has been in command of the army ; had been 
with him most of the time in the advance, and think the step taken 
by the authorities in Washington was as unwise and injudicious as 
it was uncalled for ; yet the prevailing spirit, with few exceptions, 
is to obedience to the powers that be and a determination to do all 
that they are capable of under the new chief, who is as noble a spirit 
as ever existed, and who feels, no doubt, in his honesty of purpose, that 
he is fairly qualified to carry an army of such magnitude as this 
through a campaign. Very few are, that I know of, under all the 
circumstances. The country is not as favorable as Maryland, and 
the enemy are now in position where they can receive supplies and 
information ad libitum. We will have a hard campaign if we under- 
take to advance from this point, the roads and the country itself are 
not favorable." 

Reynolds tells his own story in his testimony before the Committee 
on the Conduct of the War, as given on the 23d March, 1863 (vol.i., 
Part I., p. 593) : " When the Rebellion broke out I was commanding 
the cadets at West Point, and joined the army in the field in Septem- 
ber, 1861, when it was opposite Washington, under General McClellan. 
I was attached to McDowell's corps, in the division commanded by 
General McCall. I remained attached to that corps until the begin- 
ning of June, when the division was sent from Fredericksburg to 
General McClellan, by way of the Rappahannock and York Rivers. 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 13 

The division joined the Army of the Potomac at the White House 
about the 10th of June. I was present at the battle of Mechanics- 
ville, on the 26th of June ; it began in the afternoon, between two 
and three o'clock. The forces engaged were two brigades of McCall's 
division, occupying a defensive position along the line of Beaver 
Dam Creek, which had been selected prior to our arrival or about 
that time by General Porter, and the troops disposed on it by General 
Seymour and myself, under General McCall's direction. The enemy 
attacked the position on the two roads leading to the left and right with 
quite a large force and with great vigor. The action continued until 
nightfall, when the enemy were repulsed in every effort that he made 
to assault or to turn the immediate position on the right. About 
twelve o'clock at night I received orders from General McCall to 
evacuate the position and fall back on Cold Harbor Road to Gaines' 
Mills. I was present at the battle of Gaines' Mills, and my 
brigade was engaged for the greater part of the afternoon, and until 
our line was broken on the left and the enemy succeeded in cutting 
off a portion of the troops engaged on the right, and I was unfor- 
tunately cut off myself, so that I was made prisoner the next morn- 
ing. I rejoined General McClellan's army at Harrison's Landing, 
and immediately reported for duty, and took command of the division 
of Pennsylvania Reserves. The division was ordered to embark for 
Acquia Creek, and debarked there about the 20th of August, when 
I proceeded to Fredericksburg and reported to General Burnside. I 
was then ordered to Kelly's Ford, on the Rappahannock; reported 
to General Pope, who assigned my division temporarily to General 
McDowell's corps. On the morning of the next day I received 
orders from General Pope to join him on the march to Warrenton. 
We took part in all the operations of his army after that time, being 
engaged in the battles of the 29th and 30th, retiring with his forces 
to" the defenses in Washington." 

In his examination before the Fitz-John Porter court-martial, 
General Reynolds testified on the 30th December, 1862, " I was a 
brigadier-general commanding the division of Pennsylvania Reserves. 
I was attached to General Porter's corps in the Army of the Potomac. 
My command was the first from the Army of the Potomac to the 
Army of Virginia. After leaving Rappahannock Station, at which 
point my division joined the Army of Virginia, I was temporarily 
attached to General McDowell's corps. On the night between the 
27th and 28th of August I was at Buckland Mills, between Warrenton 
and Gainesville. On the morning of the 28th, after passing Gaines- 
ville for a short distance, my column was directed to the right, to 
march on Manassas. "On the 29th I was on the left of General Sigel's 
command, engaged with the enemy. I was on the extreme left of 
our troops, facing the enemy, and their right, towards sunset, had been 



14 A MEMOIR OF 

extended across the pike, with fresh troops coming down the Warren- 
ton Pike. I made an attack on their right with my division, but was 
obliged to change front to meet the enemy coming down the pike. I 
was forming my troops parallel to the pike to attack the enemy, which 
was on the other side of the pike, but was obliged to change front 
from front to rear to face the troops coming down the pike. They con- 
tinued to come on there until they formed and extended across the 
pike. The enemy's right outflanked my left towards evening. The 
division was manoeuvring almost all the morning, and indeed in 
action all that day. On the morning of Saturday, the 30th, I was 
up in the front, and found the enemy in heavy force to the front and 
left by personal reconnoissance. Between two and three the main 
attack was made by the enemy." 

It was Reynolds's corps and Meade's division that, under Reynolds's 
orders, made the one brilliant success at Fredericksburg, attacking 
and breaking the enemy's line. That it was nugatory for want of 
prompt support was no fault of Reynolds or of Meade or of their 
troops. Their orders were carried out with impetuous and unhesita- 
ting courage, and it does not lessen the credit due them that so com- 
petent and impartial a critic as the Count of Paris, in his "History 
of the Rebellion," decides that the success of the movement would 
not have secured a victory for the Union forces. Reynolds, in his 
report, after describing the movements of his command, says, "Meade's 
division successfully carried the wood in front, crossed the railroad, 
charged up the slope of the hill, and gained the road and edge of the 
wood, driving the enemy from his strong position in the ditches and 
railroad cut, capturing the flags of two regiments, and sending about 
two hundred prisoners to the rear ;" and concludes his account of the 
day's operations with marked emphasis : " The gallantry and steadiness 
of the troops brought into action on the left is deserving of great praise, 
the new regiments vying with the veterans in steadiness and coolness. 
That the brilliant attack made and the advanced position gained by 
them were not more successful in their results was due to the strong 
character of the enemy's defenses, the advantage he had of observing 
all our dispositions, while he made his own to meet them entirely under 
cover, and the loss of many of the leading officers of the command." 

In the complicated series of operations at Chancellorsville, Reynolds, 
with the First Corps, made a demonstration in force on the extreme 
left, and then moved with great speed to the extreme right, arriving 
there in time to take the place in line of that part of the force under 
General Hooker which had been overcome. In all the operations 
Reynolds was distinguished for his untiring activity, and a character- 
istic story is told of him that, when exhausted by fatigue, he coolly went 
to sleep at a council of war, after saying that he was in favor of moving 
on the enemy at the earliest moment, and he asked General Meade to 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 15 

vote for him, modestly adding, that as his corps had not been engaged, he 
thought the question of fighting ought to be decided by those who had 
been, but he was sure his men would fight as well as they had marched. 

The report was current in the corps at that time that Reynolds had 
been summoned to Washington and offered the command of the Army 
of the Potomac, and that he refused it on the ground that there was 
too much interference from Washington ; that no man could lead it 
safely or successfully without being freed from any such control, and 
that he preferred doing his duty as a corps commander rather than 
undertake an empty honor which carried with it no equivalent power 
or authority. It is characteristic of the man that even in his private 
letters to his family he never made any mention of the fact or in 
any way discussed the burning questions that were then making such 
sad havoc in the relations of the corps commanders and the command- 
ing general of the Army of the Potomac and the authorities at 
Washington. 

During the long and weary months spent on the Rappahannock, 
broken only by the unfortunate " mud march," Reynolds kept his corps 
in good heart; and at a time when it became a fashion for officers high 
in command to go to Washington to give advice as to who ought to be 
put at the head of the army, Reynolds remained steadily at his own 
headquarters, looking after his men, holding stoutly aloof from all 
personal or partisan quarrels, and keeping guardedly free from any 
of the heart-burnings and jealousies that did so much to cripple the 
usefulness and endanger the reputation of many gallant officers. His 
only utterances were his answers made under examination before the 
Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War, and in the long 
series of volumes of their reports, wherever Reynolds spoke, his testi- 
mony is clear, straightforward, direct, to the purpose, and entirely free 
from any criticism of those under and with whom he served. Those 
reports remain one of the most extraordinary features of the war, and 
make a surprising exhibition of the extent to which civilians sat in 
judgment upon military operations, and undertook to guide, direct, in- 
fluence, and criticise them. It would be surprising, indeed, if soldiers 
in the field could have remained strangers to the partisan and personal 
influences thus directly brought to bear upon them, and it is perhaps 
equally plain that military headquarters in Washington were most in- 
juriously affected by the necessity, real or imaginary, of conciliating 
the political leaders, who mistook the power and office of representatives 
of the people in Congress for a direct commission to control those who 
by military training, both at West Point and in the field, were best 
fitted to direct the movements of the armies, to select their commanders, 
and to give them that freedom of operation which alone can secure 
success. It was Reynolds's merit that he never would accept command 
unless it was unfettered and independent and absolute within its sphere. 



16 A MEMOIR OF 

When Lee began his second invasion of Pennsylvania, Hooker 
assigned Reynolds to the command of the right wing of the Army of 
the Potomac, consisting of his own corps, the First, the Third, under 
Sickles, and the Eleventh, under Howard. As soon as Hooker had 
crossed the Potomac, he directed Reynolds to send detachments to seize 
the passes of the South Mountain, and to follow and confine the enemy 
in its line of advance within the one valley in which he then was, prom- 
ising to bring a strong force within supporting distance should the 
enemy turn back from Pennsylvania and offer battle to the force which 
Hooker was about to send upon its rear. 

It is a tradition of the corps that when Hooker was about to be re- 
lieved, the command was again offered to Reynolds, who declined it in 
favor of Meade, and that it was only long after Reynolds's death that 
Meade learned this fact at the War Department. Meade and Reynolds 
had a long conference at Frederick City, Maryland, when the former 
assumed command, and the plans on which the army was operated were 
no doubt fully discussed between them. On the 28th of June orders 
were issued for the army to move on the following morning in three 
columns from Frederick, where it had been concentrated, the First 
and Eleventh Corps being directed to Emmettsburg, the cavalry un- 
der Buford on the left, covering the flanks and head of the infantry 
column. 

On the 30th the order of march was issued for the movement of the 
army on the 1st of July, — the Third Corps to go to Emmettsburg, the 
First to Gettysburg, the Eleventh in supporting distance. Reynolds, 
in view of the near approach to the enemy, turned over the command 
of his own corps to Doubleday, and directed the general movement in 
close communication with Buford in the advance. Buford, with his 
division of cavalry, encamped at Fountain Dale on the 29th of June, 
and started at an early hour in the morning towards Gettysburg, but 
unexpectedly came upon a detachment of the enemy's infantry. It was 
a part of Pettigrew's brigade, of Heth's division, of Hill's corps. He 
moved towards Emmettsburg, and received orders to march to Gettys- 
burg, and to hold the town, with the assurance of instant support from 
the infantry. On the same morning a portion of Heth's division, of 
Hill's corps, approached Gettysburg as near as the crest of Seminary 
Ridge, but after a short time countermarched, and by half-past ten had 
disappeared. In an hour after they had gone Buford arrived with his 
division, passed through the main street of the town, and out upon the 
Chambersburg Pike, and at a distance of a mile and a half went into 
position, — Gamble's brigade across the pike, Devin's across the Mum- 
masburg and Carlisle Roads. Gamble threw out his pickets towards 
Cashtown, Devin his towards Hunterstown, scouring the country, 
capturing stragglers from the enemy, and obtaining information that 
satisfied Buford that the rebel army was converging on Gettysburg, and 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 17 

that heavy columns were already near that place. The Union army too 
was moving in the same direction, and on the night of the 30th, Reynolds 
bivouacked on the banks of Marsh Creek, four miles away, with the 
First Corps. Howard was with the Eleventh a few miles farther back, 
on the Emmettsburg Road. Sickles was with the Third Corps at 
Emmettsburg. General Reynolds was kept fully aware of the move- 
ments of the enemy by Buford, who had reported to him in person on 
the afternoon of the 30th, and through an aide of Reynolds's, who had 
gone with Buford to the front and returned late at night with the latest 
news. 

Reynolds formed his troops for the night on ground and in positions 
from which he could fight, if attacked, until he could gather together 
and hold in hand his whole force, and reported the condition of affairs 
to Meade. On the morning of the 1st, Buford's line extended from 
the point where the Millerstown Road crosses Willoughby Run, across 
the Chambersburg Pike, around the Mummasburg, Carlisle, and Har- 
risburg Pikes, and the railroad, thus covering all the roads entering the 
town from the north and west. The guns of his light batteries were 
placed on a ridge parallel with Seminary Ridge, about half a mile from 
it, where the rest of his forces were posted, dismounted, as a reserve. 
Lieutenant Jerome, Buford's signal officer, says that on the night of 
the 30th, Buford, in conversation with Devin, said the battle would be 
fought at this point, and that he was afraid it would commence in the 
morning, before the infantry could get up. Buford, in his report, dated 
August 27, says, " On the 1st of July, between 8 and 9 A.M., reports 
came in from the First Brigade, Colonel Gamble, that the enemy was 
coming down from towards Cashtown in force. Colonel Gamble made 
an admirable line of battle, and moved off to meet him. The two 
lines soon became engaged, we having the advantage of position, he in 
numbers. The First Brigade held its own for more than two hours, 
and had to be literally dragged back a few hundred yards, to a position 
more secure and better sheltered. Tidball's battery, commanded by 
Lieutenant Calif, Second Artillery, fought on this occasion as is seldom 
witnessed. At one time the enemy had a concentric fire upon this 
battery from twelve guns, all at short range, but Calif held his own 
gloriously and worked his guns deliberately, with great judgment and 
skill, and with wonderful effect upon the enemy. The First Brigade 
maintained this unequal contest until the leading division of General 
Reynolds's corps came up to its assistance, and then most reluctantly 
did it give up the front. A portion of the Third Indiana found horse- 
holders, borrowed muskets, and fought with the Wisconsin regiment 
that came to relieve them." 

Reynolds left his camp early on the morning of the 1st, and starting 
Wadsworth's division himself and putting the whole corps in motion, 
went on in advance, passing through the town to the Seminary, where 



18 A MEMOIR OF 

he had a short but significant conversation with General Buford. 
From him and from actual observation he ascertained the real state of 
the case, and requesting Buford to hold fast the position he had secured, 
and promising to bring up the whole force under his command as fast 
as it could be concentrated, he dispatched a staff-officer to headquarters 
to report to Meade, another to Howard to bring up his corps with all 
possible speed, another to Sickles to come forward at once, another to 
hasten on the divisions of the First Corps, and then rode back across 
the fields to meet the head of his advancing column. This he took by 
the direct route he had improvised, leveling fences and hastily break- 
ing a straight road for the troops to the ridge in front of the Seminary, 
where he found the enemy pressing Buford's cavalry, and at once led 
his men to their relief. Cutler's brigade, of Wadsworth's division, had 
the advance; three regiments, the Seventy-Sixth and One Hundred 
and Forty-Seventh New York, and the Fifty-Sixth Pennsylvania, 
Wadsworth, by Reynolds's order, took to the right, facing westward, 
north of the bed of an old unfinished railroad ; the two remaining regi- 
ments, the Ninety-Fifth New York and Fourteenth New York State 
Militia, Reynolds himself took, along with Hall's Second Maine Bat- 
tery, to the south of the railroad, posting the battery on the pike, the 
cavalry withdrawing as the infantry went into position. The Fifty- 
Sixth Pennsylvania, under General Hofman, had the honor of opening 
the infantry engagement. 

Colonel Dudley, who succeeded General Meredith in command of 
the " Iron Brigade," says, in his report, " At a point about one mile 
south of the town the column left the Emmettsburg Road, bearing 
away to the west, and moved at double-quick across the fields to the 
crest of the Seminary Ridge, along which it moved with celerity to the 
Hagerstown Road, then bearing away again to the west, came into the 
low ground or swale immediately west of the Seminary ; hardly had 
the first regiment arrived upon this ground when Captain Wadsworth, 
of General Reynolds's staff, brought information that the enemy were 
advancing in strong force along and upon both sides of the Chambers- 
burg Pike, and almost simultaneously the Second Brigade became en- 
gaged upon the right. The directions of General Reynolds to the 
' Iron Brigade' were to hurry forward and over the ridge in our front, 
and attack the enemy then advancing up its western slope. The Second 
Wisconsin being upon the ground, was at once directed to charge, and 
moved with their accustomed steadiness into the northern edge of 
McPherson's woods, and became at once hotly engaged. The Seventh 
Wisconsin and the following regiments were hurried up, and striking 
the enemy, forced them to retreat down the slope upon which he had 
been so confidently advancing. Reaching Willoughby Run at its base, 
the Twenty-Fourth Michigan and Nineteenth Indiana were hastily 
thrown across into position to enfilade the enemy's line." 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 19 

The result of this dash was the surrender of General Archer with 
the larger portion of his brigade. The keen prescience of General 
Reynolds comprehended at once the importance of holding in check 
the advancing enemy and preventing, if possible, their occupation of 
so important a position. General Reynolds was personally attending 
to the hasty formation for the charge of the " Iron Brigade" when he 
was fatally wounded by one of Archer's skirmishers, at a moment 
when his aides were riding to the various regiments carrying the in- 
structions of the general " to charge as fast as they arrived." General 
Doubleday, in his report, says, " McPherson's woods possessed all the 
advantages of a redoubt, strengthening the centre of our line and en- 
filading the enemy's columns should they advance in the open space on 
either side. This tongue of wood was also coveted by the enemy, and 
Archer's brigade, of Heth's division, had been sent across the run to 
occupy it, and was already advancing upon its base when the ' Iron 
Brigade' arrived." Reynolds at once ordered it to advance at double- 
quick, and followed as the leading regiment, the Second Wisconsin, 
under Fairchild, hurried into the woods, full of rebel skirmishers and 
sharpshooters; as soon as the troops were engaged there, Reynolds 
turned to look for his supporting columns and to hasten them on, and 
as he reached the point of woods he was struck by a ball fired, it is 
supposed, by a rebel sharpshooter in one of the trees, and was fatally 
wounded ; his horse carried him a few rods towards the open and he 
fell on the ground dead. Almost at the moment when his aides, 
Riddle and Wadsworth, had effected the capture of Archer's brigade, 
Reynolds fell, and the rebel brigadier-general and his men were 
marching to the rear while the dead body of Reynolds was carried in 
the same direction in a bier hastily improvised, a blanket swung over 
muskets, on the shoulders of his men. It was first taken to the Semi- 
nary, and when the fortune of the day was turning against us it was 
taken through the town to a little house on the Emmettsburg Road, 
where it remained until the final retreat of our forces was ordered, and 
then it was taken in an ambulance to Meade's headquarters and to 
Uniontown, whence it was brought by rail to Baltimore, on the next 
day to Philadelphia, and on Saturday, the 4th of July, to Lancaster, 
where it was quietly interred along side of his father and mother. 
Sixteen years later the body of his elder brother, Admiral Reynolds, 
was brought to the same spot. 

There was a general expression of grief for the' untimely death of 
General Reynolds, and an almost unanimous feeling that his services in 
seizing the position in front of the town and in boldly engaging the 
enemy with a largely inferior force went far towards securing the ulti- 
mate success of the battle of Gettysburg, and largely contributed to 
make it a crowning triumph for the Union cause. His name and fame 
are now indissolubly bound up with the history of the operations that 



20 A MEMOIR OF 

culminated in the battle which finally and forever freed the North from 
the fear even of an invasion in force. 

In General Doubleday's " Military Memoir and Report of Service" 
he gives an itinerary, from which, with his permission, I have made 
the following extracts, as throwing light on the movements of Reynolds 
in his last campaign : 

June 14, 1863, Reynolds was given the command of the First, 
Third, and Eleventh Corps, constituting the right wing of the army. 
After the army faced about, this became the left wing. 

June 20, Ewell crossed the Potomac at Williamsport with Rodes's 
and Johnson's divisions of his corps. 

June 24, Lee, Hill, and Longstreet crossed "the Potomac at Shep- 
pardstown and Williamsport, and the columns united near Hagerstown. 

June 25, Hooker's army crossed at Edwards' Ferry. The cavalry 
moved to Frederick City. 

June 26, Early occupied Gettysburg. 

June 27, Lee determined to concentrate near Gettysburg. Hooker 
relieved by Meade. 

June 28, Meade assumed command, Reynolds returning to that of. 
the First Corps. 

Meade ordered the First and Eleventh Corps from Middletown to 
Frederick City, and thence through Mechanicsburg and Emmettsburg 
towards Gettysburg. The First Corps, under Reynolds, went to 
Frederick. 

June 29, The left of the army at Emmettsburg. Buford's division 
covered the left flank, moving from Middleburg towards Gettysburg. 
The First Corps at Emmettsburg bivouacked on the heights to the 
north of the town; in the expectation that the enemy would advance in 
this direction, General Reynolds devoted several hours to selecting a 
position for a defensive battle ; he chose a battle-ground with a stronger 
position back of it to retreat to in case of disaster. Buford's division 
of cavalry was at Fountain Dale. 

June 30, it was ordered to Gettysburg to occupy it, with the prom- 
ise of ample infantry support ; he encountered part of Hill's division, 
and, having no orders to attack, made a circuit by way of Emmetts- 
burg; as he approached Gettysburg a foraging party of Pettigrew's 
brigade, of Hill's corps, retreated through the town and fell back upon 
the main body, who were in the vicinity of Cashtown and Mummas- 
burg. Buford bivouacked a mile and a half west of the town, putting 
Gamble's brigade across the Chambersburg Road, and Devin's across 
the Mummasburg and Carlisle Roads towards Hunterstown. The First 
Corps moved to Marsh Creek, the Third to Taney town and Emmetts- 
burg, the Eleventh to Emmettsburg. 

The orders for the next day directed the First Corps to Gettysburg, 
the Third to Emmettsburg, the Eleventh to support the First. 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 21 

The First Corps marched three or four miles to Marsh Creek, and 
took up a defensive position against the enemy, who were supposed 
to be at Fairfield. Wadsworth's division, with Hall's Second Maine 
Battery, covered the Gettysburg Road, the Third (Doubleday\s) Di- 
vision, with Cooper's First Pennsylvania Battery, covered the Fairfield 
Road, and Robinson's division, with the remaining batteries, was posted 
on the left, towards Emmettsburg, as a reserve. Here at Marsh Creek 
Reynolds was again placed in command of the left wing of the army, 
consisting of the First, Third, and Eleventh Corps. 

July 1, early in the morning, Heth and Pender's division of Hill's 
corps advanced to seize Gettysburg, but Buford determined to hold on 
until Reynolds's corps, which was six miles back, could come to his as- 
sistance. At 9 a.m. Heth's division, of Hill's corps, and Wadsworth's 
division, of Reynolds's corps, were each pressing forward to occupy Get- 
tysburg. Davis' and Archer's brigades of the former came in contact 
with Buford's skirmish lines. Buford, with his batteries, kept them 
back until Reynolds arrived, at 10 a.m., with Wadsworth's division. 
The cavalry then withdrew, Gamble's brigade in rear of the left of our 
line. Devin's brigade picketed the roads to the north and east. After 
placing Cutler's brigade in position, Reynolds ordered Meredith's bri- 
gade to enter the woods and attack Archer's rebel brigade. Reynolds 
sent word to Doubleday, " I will hold on to the Chambersburg Road ; 
you must hold on to the Millersburg Road." This was his last message 
to his second in command. 

Still more valuable and interesting are the last dispatches that passed 
between Reynolds and Meade and Buford and Howard and Sickles. 
These, by the kindness of General E. D. Townsend, the adjutant-gen- 
eral of the army, and by the courtesy of Captain R. 1ST. Scott, in charge 
of the war-records office of the War Department, I am enabled to add 
to, and thus complete, this sketch of Reynolds's last campaign. These 
have not hitherto been published, and therefore may have peculiar im- 
portance, as throwing light upon the events that crowded the last hours 
of Reynolds's life. It is characteristic of the affection with which his 
memory is cherished by his old comrades and companions in arms of the 
regular service, that they have all gladly given every aid in their power 
to contribute the material for this memoir. Reynolds's name is still dear 
to all who knew him in the army, and especially to his fellow-graduates, 
and to them all that he wrote and all that was written to him in refer- 
ence to the last movements under his direction at Gettysburg will have 
a special interest that fully justifies this use of it in these pages. 

Reynolds to Hoivard, June 30, 1863. " Buford is in Gettysburg, and 
found a regiment of rebel infantry there, advancing on the town, but 
which retired as he advanced, — reports a division of the rebels moving 
in direction of Berlin. I forwarded the dispatches to Meade. Buford 
sent a regiment to Fairfield. I have one division and a battery on the 



22 A MEMOIR OF 

Gettysburg Road, one division on the road to Fairfield from here, and 
one in reserve on the Gettysburg Road. I do not believe the report of 
the enemy's marching on Berlin. They are moving out into the valley, 
but whether to get to York or to give battle I cannot tell." 

Reynolds to Howard, June 30. " Buford sends reliable information 
that the enemy occupy Chambersburg in force, and are moving over 
from Cashtown. I have taken position behind Marsh Creek." 

Reynolds to Butterfield, June 30 (found on Reynolds's body). "I 
have forwarded 'all the information to you that I have been able to 
gain to-day. I think if the enemy advance in force from Gettysburg, 
and we are to fight a defensive battle in this vicinity, that the posi- 
tion to be occupied is just north of the town of Emmettsburg, covering 
the plank road to Taneytown. He will undoubtedly endeavor to turn 
our left by way of Fairfield and the mountain roads leading down 
into the Frederick and Emmettsburg Pike, near Mount St. Mary's 
College. 

" The above is mere surmise on my part, — at all events, an engineer 
officer ought to be sent to reconnoitre this position, as we have reason 
to believe that the main force of the enemy is in the vicinity of Cash- • 
town or debouching from the Cumberland Valley above it. The corps 
are placed as follows : two divisions of the First Corps behind Marsh 
Run, one on the road leading to Gettysburg, and one on the road lead- 
ing from Fairfield to the Chambersburg Road at Moritz Tavern • the 
Third Division, with the reserve batteries, is on the road to Chambers- 
burg, behind Middle Creek, not placed in position. This was the posi- 
tion taken up under the orders to march to Marsh Creek. I have not 
changed it, as it might be necessary to dispute the advance of the enemy 
across this creek, in order to take up the position behind Middle Creek, 
which is the one I alluded to, near Emmettsburg. Howard occupies 
in part the position I did last night, which is to the left of the position 
in front of Middle Creek, and commands the roads leading from Fair- 
field down to Emmettsburg and the pike below." 

Meade to Reynolds, June 30, 1 1.30 A.M. " Your despatch is received. 
The enemy undoubtedly occupy the Cumberland Valley, from Cham- 
bersburg, in force; whether the holding of the Cashtown Gap is to 
prevent our entrance or is their advance against us remains to be seen. 
With Buford at Gettysburg and Mechanicsville, and a regiment in 
front of Emmettsburg, you ought to be advised in time of their ap- 
proach. In case of an advance in force either against you or Howard 
at Emmettsburg, you must fall back to that place, and I will reinforce 
you from the corps nearest to you, which are Sickles at Taneytown and 
Slocum at Littlestown. We are as concentrated as my present infor- 
mation of the position of the enemy justifies. I have pushed out the 
cavalry in all directions to feel for them, and so soon as I can make up 
any positive opinion as to their position I will move again. In the 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 23 

mean time, if they advance against me, I must concentrate at that point 
where they show the strongest force. . . . 

"P.S. — If, after occupying your present position, it is your judgment 
that you would be in better position at Emmettsburg than where you 
are, you can fall back without waiting for the enemy or further orders. 
Your present position was given more with a view of an advance on 
Gettysburg than a defensive position." 

June 30, 1863, Reynolds assigned command of the three corps 
forming the left wing, viz., First, Eleventh, and Third, by order from 
Headquarters Army of the Potomac. 

Sickles to Meade, — June 30, Bridgeport, on the Monocacy, — in- 
closing orders from Reynolds, as follows : " General Reynolds wishes you 
to camp upon Cat-Tail Branch with your command, and for you to 
send a staff-officer to his headquarters. General Reynolds wishes you to 
face towards Gettysburg and cover the roads leading from Gettysburg." 
Sickles says, "It is in accordance with my written orders received from 
headquarters at 1 p.m., but in conflict with the verbal order given me 
by the general commanding while on the march. Shall I move forward? 
My first division is about a mile this side of Emmettsburg." 

Buford to Fleasonton, Gettysburg, June 30. Reports that he entered 
at 11 A.M., found everybody in a terrible state of excitement on account 
of the enemy's advance to within half a mile of the town. " On push- 
ing him back, I learned that Anderson's division was marching from 
Chambersburg by Mummasburg, Hunterstown, and Abbotstown in 
towards York. I have sent parties to the two first-named places, 
towards Cashville, and a strong force towards Littlestown. . . . The 
troops that are coming here were the same that I found early this 
morning at Fairfield. General Reynolds has been advised of all that 
I know." 

Buford to Fleasonton, Gettysburg, June 30, p.m. "A. P. Hill's 
corps, composed of Anderson, Heth, and Pender, is massed back of Cash- 
town, nine (9) miles from this place. His pickets, composed of infantry 
and artillery, are in sight of mine. There is a road from Cashtown. . . 
which is terribly infested with roving detachments of cavalry. Rumor 
says Ewell is coming over the mountains from Carlisle. ... I have 
kept General Reynolds posted of all that has transpired." 

Reynolds to Buford, June 30. "Have you ascertained positively 
about the infantry force of the enemy at Fairfield, whether they have 
fallen back or are still in the position they occupied at Newpilman's 
Farm ? Send me word by bearer." 

Buford to Reynolds, June 30, 10.30 p.m. "I am satisfied that A. 
P. Hill's corps is massed just back of Cashtown, about nine miles 
from this place. Pender's division of this (Hill's) corps came up to- 
day, of which I advised you, saying i the enemy in my front was in- 
creased.' The enemy's pickets, infantry and artillery, are within four 



M A MEMOIR OF 

miles of this place, at the Cashtown Eoad. My parties have returned 
that went north, south, west, and northeast, after crossing the road from 
Cashtown to Oxford in several places. They heard nothing of any 
force having passed over it lately. The road, however, is terribly in- 
fested with prowling cavalry parties. Near Heidlersburg, to-day, one 
of my parties captured a courier of Lee's; nothing was found on him. 
He says Ewell's corps is crossing the mountains from Carlisle, Rodes's 
division being at Petersburg, in advance. Longstreet, from all I can 
learn, is still behind Hill. I have many rumors and reports of the 
enemy advancing upon me from towards York. I have to pay atten- 
tion to some of them, which causes me to overwork my horses and men. 
I can get no forage or rations ; am out of both. The people give and 
sell the men something to eat, but I can't stand that way of subsisting. 
It causes dreadful straggling. Should I have to fall back, advise me 
by what route." 

Mr. James Beale, formerly of the Twelfth Massachusetts (First 
Brigade, First Division, First Corps), a diligent student of the military 
history of the Rebellion, has made some important contributions 
from unpublished letters in his collection as to the exact details of the . 
opening of the battle. G. B. Garrison, who was employed by General 
Buford as a scout, writes that U I find in my old note-book that 
Reynolds came on the field twenty-five minutes before nine, in advance 
of his corps ; the first infantry came on the field fifteen minutes after 
nine." 

General Weld, then a captain and aide-de-camp on Reynolds's 
staff, finds in his diary that "at eight o'clock Reynolds and his staff 
started for the front. . . . On the crest of the hills beyond we could see 
the enemy's guns going into position ; . . . a few hurried words from 
General Buford showed the condition of affairs. . . . General Reynolds 
turning to me [Weld] said, ' Ride at once at your utmost speed to 
General Meade, tell him the enemy are advancing in strong force, and 
that I fear they will get to the heights beyond the town before I can. 
I will fight them inch by inch, and if driven into the town I will 
barricade the streets and hold them back as long as possible.' " 

General James A. Hall, who commanded the Second Maine Battery, 
writes, " As to the selection of the position, Reynolds was the man. . . . 
Early on July 1st I heard Buford say, * Reynolds, I have run upon 
some regiments of infantry near Gettysburg, — they are in the woods ; 
I am unable to dislodge them.' Reynolds at once dictated a message to 
General Meade in my hearing, something like this : l Buford just now 
reports that he finds a small force of the enemy's infantry in a point 
of woods near Gettysburg, which he is unable to dislodge, and while I 
am aware that it is not your desire to force an engagement at that point, 
still I feel at liberty to advance and develop the strength of the 
enemy.' I was at Reynolds's side for some little time at Seminary 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 25 

Ridge, having gone ahead of my battery at his request, and I rode 
from Seminary Ridge out to the position taken by my guns, some half- 
mile beyond the ridge, by his side, and all his remarks and appearance 
gave me the impression that he had gone there to stay." 

Reynolds's death was felt at once on the field, and while it is not 
possible to see how even his enthusiastic and inspiring gallantry could 
have overcome the immense numerical majority of the enemy, there 
can be little doubt that his skill and courage would have done much 
to lend strength to the forces in hand, and that his fiery impatience 
would have quickened the arrival of the rest of his command. As it 
was, the first day's battle at Gettysburg gave time for the concentration 
of the rest of the army on the hills back of Gettysburg, the heights 
which Hancock at once strengthened, and Meade afterwards defended, 
with such admirable appreciation of the vantage-ground that Reynolds 
had secured, by sending Buford to seize the hills in front of the town, 
and by bravely putting his slender infantry force against the over- 
whelming strength of the enemy. Such is the record of a life spent 
in the service of his country and sacrificed in the defense of the Union. 
His whole career is marked at every point by indefatigable zeal and 
distinguished ability, by the hearty approval of his superiors in com- 
mand, the affection of his fellow-officers, the confidence of his men, 
the perfect trust of all who knew him. 

In reply to the address accompanying the presentation of a sword 
of honor to General Meade by the Pennsylvania Reserves, after Rey- 
nolds's death, Meade said, t( Reynolds was the noblest as well as the 
bravest gentleman in the army ; when he fell at Gettysburg the army 
lost its right arm." Professor Kendrick, an instructor at the Military 
Academy when Reynolds was a cadet at West Point, and still actively 
engaged there, his dear friend through life and still full of tender 
sorrow for his loss, thus sums up in the eloquence of truth the lead- 
ing characteristics of his pupil, — "Although Reynolds entered the 
Military Academy as one of its youngest members, he quickly took 
a very prominent place in the confidence and esteem of his class- 
mates, many of whom have since loyally written their names high in 
the military annals of the country, while his frank and manly bear- 
ing gained him the respect of the corps of instructors. Independent 
in thought and action, of clear and definite perceptions, his opinions, 
on all subjects within the range of a young man's discussion, were 
well formed and well maintained, and yet so calmly and courteously 
as to leave no sting in the breast of an opponent, but rather higher 
respect and greater friendship. He worshipped truth and duty in the 
highest acceptance of those words; with all these great qualities he 
went forth from the Academy to the wider field of army service, 
and as word came back again and again of his enviable progress, it was 
recognized as the expected fulfillment of his early promise. It was 



26 A MEMOIR OF 

his good fortune to serve in the beginning of his military career in 
intimate connection with that other great man and soldier, George H. 
Thomas. Together and in the same battery they served in the gallant 
defense of Fort Brown, at the commencement of the Mexican War ; 
together they fought successfully at Monterey, and together they 
struggled in the desperate and important battle of Buena Vista, which 
largely aided in the capture of Vera Cruz and the victory of Cerro 
Gordo. In all these conflicts on General Taylor's line, Reynolds was 
greatly distinguished for his calm courage, his modest self-reliance, and 
his military conduct. Of him General Taylor's accomplished chief of 
staff, Colonel Bliss, wrote, ' Your young friend has the general's high 
regard, and he is the idol of his men.' In his great and varied service 
in Florida, in Texas, in Mexico, California, Oregon, Utah, Reynolds 
always showed himself without fear, without reproach, and without an 
enemy. When he yielded up his life, still so full of promise, in the 
defense of his native State and of his country in the turning victory 
of the war at Gettysburg, it was but the fitting termination of his 
whole life. England ' almost regretted the victory of Trafalgar,' 
since it cost her the death of Nelson ; our army and ( thinking men'- 
throughout the North, who knew his high worth and high prospects, 
regretted that Gettysburg could not be won without the loss of General 
John F. Reynolds." 

General Devens, in his oration on General Meade and the battle of 
Gettysburg, said, " Reynolds was known to the whole army as a soldier 
in whose bravery and skill the most implicit confidence might be placed. 
Modest and simple in manner, with no trace of affectation or boasting, 
reliable as steel, a true soldier, he died a soldier's death, grandly con- 
tributing to the triumph he was never to share. Where could man better 
meet the inevitable hour than in defense of his native State, waiting 
with eager zeal and dauntless heart the advance of the coming foe ?" 

General Heth spoke, in his address at Bunker Hill, of the respect 
and admiration felt on his, the Southern side towards Reynolds, "at 
whose death the nation well might mourn, and in doing so honor her- 
self." 

General Meade himself never ceased to bear witness to his sense of 
personal loss at the death of the fellow-soldier with whom he had 
gained his first distinction in the division of Pennsylvania Reserves. 

The "History of the Pennsylvania Reserves," almost an official 
record of the brave men who served in that splendid body, is full of the 
gallant deeds of Reynolds in his successive steps as brigade, division, and 
corps commander. It tells in detail the story of the eventful 30th of 
June, 1862, when "the Reserves, greatly outnumbered, were only able 
to hold the enemy in check by rapid and unceasing firing ; their left was 
pressed back, and to the consternation of their mounted officers, who 
from their position had a view of the field, the troops on the right of 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 27 

the Reserves gave way in utter cod fusion. At this critical moment 
the gallant Reynolds, observing that the flag-staff of the Second Regiment 
had been pierced by a bullet and broken, seized the flag from the color- 
bearer, and dashing to the right, rode twice up and down his entire 
division line, waving the flag about his head and cheering on his men. 
The effect upon the division was electrical ; the men, inspired by the 
intrepidity of their leader, rent the air with cheers, plied their tremen- 
dous musketry fire with renewed energy and vigor, and in a few moments 
the thinned ranks of the rebel regiments gave way before the steady 
and unrelenting volleys poured upon them." Gordon, in his " Army 
of Virginia," says that " Reynolds's division like a rock withstood the 
advance of the victorious enemy and saved the Union army from rout." 
The sword of honor voted to General Reynolds by the enlisted men 
of the Division of Pennsylvania Reserves, at the close of the Peninsula 
campaign, was a natural expression of the affection and confidence with 
which his men always honored him. 

The. men of the First Corps, emulating the example of the division 
of Pennsylvania Reserves, soon after the death of Reynolds, set on 
foot the plan of a heroic statue on the field of Gettysburg ; and now a 
bronze figure of Reynolds by Ward, one of the first artists of the 
country, fitly marks the part taken by Reynolds in that decisive battle, 
and his pre-eminent services in securing the ultimate victory, by seizing 
the position commanded by the spot from which his noble monument 
now looks out over the field where he gave up his life. At a later day, 
the First Corps placed in the library at West Point a portrait of Rey- 
nolds by Alexander Laurie, who, besides being an able artist, had served 
under Reynolds, and therefore was especially well fitted to portray his 
features, that they might recall to future students of the Military 
Academy the example of one whose life and death are alike among the 
most sacred traditions and the most instructive lessons of West Point. 
Reynolds's was a face and figure worthy the sculptor's chisel and the 
painter's brush, — fully six feet in height, he was so well proportioned 
that he did not seem to be beyond the average ; his dark hair and eyes, 
his ruddy cheeks, tanned by constant exposure, his pearly teeth, shining 
through his tawny moustache, his high cheek-bones that gave him almost 
the look of an Indian, his long, lithe figure, his almost perfect horse- 
manship, his quickness in motion, his simplicity in dress and demeanor, 
his watchfulness and incessant activity, — these live in the memory of 
the thousands who are proud to recall their gallant leader. General 
Reynolds was a true hero in life and in death, — his one purpose was to 
do his duty, and he did it without regard to cost or consequences. The 
affectionate confidence of all under whom he served and of all who 
served under him, and the honors freely conferred on him, are the best 
evidences of the well-founded reliance on his soldierly qualities. Rising 
steadily to the demands made upon his skill and military genius, he 



28 A MEMOIR OF 

was as perfectly master of himself and all his faculties when he was 
in charge of a section of artillery in his first engagement in the Mexi- 
can War as when he commanded the left wing of the Army of the 
Potomac in- his last battle. What he was as a boy he was to his 
last hour, — bright, cheerful, hopeful, earnest, zealous, enthusiastic, 
courageous, modest, and unassuming. These are all homely virtues, 
but their perfect union made and marked General Reynolds as a man 
fitted for the highest honors, yet seeking none. In the long roll of the 
sons of Pennsylvania who have won honor for the State and for the 
Union, none served with more unselfish devotion and a higher aim ; 
and coming as he did of a purely Pennsylvania stock, commanding 
largely Pennsylvania troops, and falling on Pennsylvania soil in defense 
of his State from invasion, it must be borne in mind that he was a 
soldier of the army of the United States, with no tincture of ultra 
State loyalty, and with no hesitation in doing his duty, wherever his 
lot was cast, in defense of the flag of the Union. 

It is especially gratifying to those who are nearest to these gallant 
brothers in blood and name that Admiral Reynolds's bequest of the 
portrait of General Reynolds to the Historical Society was accepted 
with such fitting solemnities. Henceforth the visitor who looks for 
the worthies of the Commonwealth, whose portraits adorn its hall, will 
turn with reverent eye 

" To him whose loyal, brave, and gentle heart 
Fulfilled the hero's and the patriot's part. 

To public duty true, 
Mild in reproof, sagacious in command, 
He spread fraternal zeal throughout his band, 
And led each arm to act, each heart to feel. 
These were his public virtues ; but to trace 
His private life's fair purity and grace, 
To paint the traits that drew affection strong 
From friends, an ample and an ardent throng, 
And more, to speak his memory's grateful claim 
On those who mourn him most and bear his name, 
O'ercomes the trembling hand, 
O'ercomes the heart, unconscious of relief, 
Save placing this memorial o'er his dust." 

Gettysburg has his heroic statue, West Point his portrait, and now 
Philadelphia has enshrined him in a place of honor, to keep successive 
generations mindful of the noble life and the heroic death of John 
Fulton Reynolds. 



ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 29 



Note. — General James L. Reynolds died in Philadelphia on April 
5, 1880. The following, from the Philadelphia Times of the 6th, gives 
the leading characteristics of the third and youngest of this notable 
group of brothers : 

James Le Fevre Keynolds was born in Lancaster on the 8th of March, 1822. 
He was the youngest brother of the late Admiral William Keynolds, who died in 
1879, and of General John F. Keynolds, who fell at Gettysburg. Their ancestry 
was fully traced out in a memoir of these two gallant officers lately read before the 
Historical Society, and " Le Fevre" was a name that James Reynolds inherited 
from his Huguenot forefathers. James Reynolds was educated with his brothers 
at the Moravian village of Litiz, and afterwards at the first public school established 
in Lancaster. He was originally intended for West Point, but the appointment 
was given to his elder brother, John F., whose record is so brilliant a part of the 
military history of this State and of its share in the Rebellion. James Reynolds 
graduated at Marshall College, Mercersburg, now Franklin and Marshall College, 
Lancaster, and he testified his interest in his alma mater by long service as a trustee 
and by valuable gifts to its library. He began studying law with John R. Mont- 
gomery, one of the leaders of, the Lancaster bar, and was admitted in 1844. He 
was principally engaged in the active litigation growing out of the complications 
of the great Coleman estates, of which his father had been manager for one branch 
of the family, and he argued some of the most important questions at issue in it at 
a comparatively recent period before the Supreme Court. He had been offered by 
Governor Packer the appointment of a judge on that bench in 1854, but he preferred 
the absolute independence of a practitioner, and, indeed, his nature fitted him better 
for political and forensic triumphs than for the bench. He inherited from his father 
a strong admiration for, and great personal intimacy with, Mr. Buchanan, and 
largely contributed to his nomination and election to the Presidency, but his out- 
spoken opposition to the extension of slavery soon brought about its natural and 
necessary result. He left the Breckenridge, or pro-slavery, wing of the Democratic 
party, voted in 1860 for Douglas, and when the Rebellion broke out threw himself 
with all his strength into the Republican party, voted for Lincoln in 1864, and 
thenceforth allied himself with its leaders. He served as quartermaster-general of 
the State under Governor Curtin, and labored with all his great ability to second 
the government in every measure necessary for the successful prosecution of the 
war, serving as a private soldier for a time with the " emergency men." In 1872 
he was a Republican member of the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, 
but, with characteristic independence, he declined to sign the new Constitution be- 
cause he disapproved of many of its provisions. He remained an active counselor 
in all the movements and management of the Republican party in the State until 
his health broke down, and his last illness, a period of long and weary suffering, 
borne with great patience, was softened by the sympathy of friends of all political 
parties and men of all pursuits. He was an indefatigable reader and a diligent 
student and collector of books, and his bachelor quarters in Lancaster were so 
crowded with his library that he hardly left himself room for ordinary comforts. 
He had a large circle of warm personal friends and admirers, and his ability, espe- 
cially in conversation on high topics of political and legal interest, won the applause 
of all with whom he was brought in contact, without regard to party or profession. 
His prodigious reading was freely at the service of all his listeners, for he had an 
accurate and retentive memory for the smallest events of any historical and literary 
importance, and his minute acquaintance with the political and personal history 
of the country, and especially of his State, made him an invaluable ally. In law 
and in politics he was a mine of information for his colleagues and his associates, 
and, as he was singularly unselfish and free from any personal ambition, he was 



30 MEMOIR OF ADMIRAL AND GENERAL REYNOLDS. 

always ready to help those who came to him for assistance. His affectionate regard 
for the memory of his gallant brother, General John F. Keynolds, made him a dili- 
gent student of his whole military career, and he looked with sovereign contempt 
on those who tried to lessen the services by which General Eeynolds contributed so 
largely to secure the great and important victory at Gettysburg. James L. Rey- 
nolds was fitted for a much larger space than that he filled in the public estimation, 
and it was by those who were nearest to him in his political and his professional career 
that his great abilities were best appreciated. He was a man of uncompromising 
fidelity to his party, to his friends, and to his country, and he had an unshaken faith 
in its future that carried him far beyond those who were wrapped up in the small 
incidents of its immediate daily history. His career of usefulness and activity was 
cut off at a comparatively early age, but he was too sturdy in his independence and 
too outspoken in his judgments of men and measures to subordinate himself to party 
leaders for the sake of place, and he preferred his profession to any political office, 
so that to the last he was free to speak and act as he thought right. 



WILLIAM REYNOLDS, 



REAR-ADMIRAL U.S.N. 



JOHN FULTON REYNOLDS, 

MAJOR-GENERAL U. S. V., COLONEL FIFTH U.S. INFANTRY. 



PAR NOBILE FRATRUM. 



A MEMOIR 



BY 

J. G. ROSENGARTEN. 



[REPRINTED, WITH ADDITIONS, FROM THE UNITED SERVICE, MAY, 1880.] 



PRESS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., PHILADELPHIA. 

1880. 



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